Kristallnacht: Then and Now.

Not to downgrade the severity and utter horror of kristelenacht. But in my eyes watching the shul's in gush katif burn, That hurt more. Watching as soldiers dragging out my friends and neighbors from their homes... smoke filling the ear, crying and weeping. tearing kriya...soldiers in black uniforms bashing down the doors... oh i'm sure you saw this on the news but they don't show you the heavy stuff... watching as my 5 year old neighbor david begging the soldiers for mercy, crying and pleading with them not to hurt his father.... i watched this. i watched as the kasam missile, the mortars and katayushka rockets were brought out and paraded to the troops... and then i went to the shul where we prayed, i watched as the army broke the door down and rushed in, beating and hitting me and my friends inside the shul. i watched through teary eyes as i was brutally dragged out and beaten with a torah scroll in my arms no less!!all this just 3 days after i sat on that very same stone floor and weeped over the destruction of jerusalem, 3 days later my shirt torn i weeped over the destruction of gush katif by my fellow brothers... the physical pain did not bother me, the clubs and rifle butts did not touch my soul, the hand cuffs and jail cells did not lock in my spirit... watching the shul's burn broke me and tore me to pieces... my rabbi who is a survivor of bergen belsen tells me this is how they felt in europe. their houses and possessions did not dent them. watching the torah scrolls burn is what shattered them.p.s. while my blog contains a lot of what happend in gush katif, Even 3 monthes later i cant get myself to fully write down my feelings. as my rabbi who survived bergen belsen calls us "the survivors of gush katif destruction"